Corruptible Time
by LooksLikeBooks
Summary: what is time? It was a man made ideal that presented coordination, and if she slipped out of his hands now his life would be sent into chaos, what terrible irony was this, how could the world be so unjust, how could time be so corruptible.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

She had brought him back just to turn around and try to kill him again.

Steven stumbled through the wooded area applying pressure to the wound caused by Helen and her murderous intent, she had brought him back from death and recreated his body using her futuristic technology she stole from a time that he supposed was not her own, his mind was replaced with artificial memories but something within him had snapped and he remembered everything that had happened before he had passed away, he stopped to catch his breath leaning against the nearest tree, trying to keep himself from looking at his wound.

"Evil, conniving, crazy, bitch." He mumbled to himself, hissing out the last word, the woods was thick and he was sure if he stayed there no one would find him till morning, but he couldn't keep moving, he just couldn't, his vision was blurring, his lids drooping, his mind begging for that sweet serenity of darkness that comes when they close, no worry, no care, just rest.

He saw a light in the distance, it almost looked like a torch light, he smiled, he figured that he must've just missed this part last time, because he didn't remember a light coming for him when he died before, he waited for warmth to wash over him, or cold, whatever they planned for him, he found it weird that the song _Staying Alive_ by the BeeGees was playing through his mind as the light came closer, he realised at a second glance the light was actually from a torch and the girl standing behind it was hovering above him, but she seemed unexpectedly calm.

"What are you doing here? Don't you know it's dangerous out here?" he didn't so much hear her words as he saw them, he felt her voice wrap around him and almost lift him to his feet, her words were so soft, he wanted to reach out and touch them but they vanished before he could feel them.

He groaned and moved the hand that was covering his wound, she huffed, she didn't gasp like most of the people would, and he gave a goofy smile as she kneeled beside him and pressed down on his wound.

"Ok, I know this may be hard but I need you to stand, can you hear me, you need to stand and walk." He felt her throw his arm over her small shoulder and press harder on the wound, he sat up a little and hissed, she just kept pulling him up till he was on his feet, he was surprised that she was supporting most of his weight, she was tall but thin, she didn't look as strong as she was, but he didn't have time to question it, his vision was blurring and he could feel his skin growing cold and his heart beat slowing down, he felt her breaths getting heavier, and then finally he felt something soft behind him, and he closed his eyes and waited for the sweet bliss of death.

"I'm Steven" he remembered whispering and hearing a laugh in the back of his mind.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1**

He woke up with a loud groan and felt the soft sheet around him, he wrapped himself in the warmth, he felt the tingle of a numb pain in his side, he checked himself over and remembered the shot he'd received from his once prised professor, he buried his head in his pillow.

Then he heard the sound of the shower running, he carefully got out of the soft, warmth, as not to agitate his wound, and carefully looked around the room, this wasn't his apartment, not that he wanted to go back there anyways since it would be the first place Helen would look for him, but this room wasn't quite comforting either, seeing as it was a stranger to him, if he were in danger he wouldn't know his right from left, which was terrifying, not that he'd ever show it.

He scanned the room, it was a light blue room, almost white, with a patio door on the far left side covered by curtains, there was a desk at the far end of the room that was a tan color, it had open books, crumpled papers, and pencils littering its surface, there was a white night stand beside the bed he had been sleeping on with a white lamp with a tan shade over the light bulb, it had one drawer, he opened it, inside was a small pistol, a set of keys, a glasses case alongside a case for contacts, he closed the drawer carefully, and moved over to the opposite wall of the bed that had a large white dresser, he was definitely starting to see a pattern in this room, it was beautifully set up but it was also very minimal, the closet wasn't full, what hung in the closet was just enough to fit in the duffel bag that laid on the bottom, he was about to walk over to the door that was only inches away from the white, wood wardrobe before it opened, a tall, thin, black haired girl walked out, a short towel just covering her while she stared down at the ground patting her hair with a towel, steam came out of (what he assumed was) the bathroom, surrounding her slender body, she flung her hair back and began patting it again, she opened her eyes to reveal piercing blue orbs that pulled all her features back with surprise, her full lips opened and she let out a small high pitched noise, it wasn't a scream, it was more like a squeak as she ran back into the bathroom and slamming the door shut behind her, he heard her body make a thunk against the door as she slumped to the ground on the opposite side than himself, he walked to the door, he tried to jiggle the handle in vain, he turned on his heel and slumped beside the door himself and leaned his head back.

"You weren't supposed to wake up now." He heard her whisper, almost to herself but directing it towards him, he chuckled to himself.

"People always did tell me I have impeccable timing" he smiled to himself thinking of all the times he had been swooping in just in the nick of time to help Cutter and the rest of the crew, it had pained him when Helen told him he'd been replaced with a government army man, but he knew that it had to happen, since of course he had been dead and Nick certainly couldn't just give Conner a gun, he shuddered to think the insanity that would ensue from his clumsy mishaps.

"Are you being sarcastic?" she said from the other side of the door, he heard her head fall back onto the cool flat surface of the metal door, he smiled to himself thinking of how un-sarcastic he was being, he chuckled again thinking of the time he walked in on Abbey and Conner in their underwear in her apartment, he couldn't believe how jealous he had been over the two of them when he had found out they were going out, he wanted that, he wanted love, he wanted that kind of connection that would keep two people together forever, but before he could he had died.

"You almost died out there." He had been lost in his own thought, drifted, her soft voice brought him back to the present moment.

"Yeah."

"Why?" It wasn't the what he had expected to hear, of course, it wasn't really your typical situation, he wasn't sure why he hadn't expected this question, it wasn't curious that she'd ask, but he felt like he couldn't tell her, he couldn't let her in on his secret.

"It's a long story."

"I've got all day" she retorted without missing a heartbeat, he chuckled, he wasn't sure why, it wasn't a funny situation but it was the reaction he had to the girls swift but sure answers.

"Do you?" he asked jokingly skeptic.

"Actually I don't, so can I get the quick version?" he could hear the smile playing on her lips.

"There is no quick version."

"Shame." She almost sounded relieved but at the same time concerned "I just want to know one thing?"

He had a feeling he knew what she would ask, a strange man, who was shot, found wondering around in the woods, and taken back to her bed room.

"Are you dangerous?"

He looked inside himself for a second, he didn't want anything to happen to this girl who had saved his life, but at the same time he felt that the danger had passed, if anything, Helen probably thought he was dead, everyone else assumed he had been dead for years, there was really nothing that posed imminent danger on his life, but at the same time he couldn't lie, because if Helen found out he lived, and wanted him dead, the hell hounds she could send after him were far worse than any bullet lodged in his side, he'd felt it before, it wasn't pleasant.

"Yes, very." He said quietly, he heard her stand up behind the door, he felt the support of the silver, metal door disappear from behind his back, his head fell on the wooden floor just beside the feet of the black haired girl.

"You don't look very dangerous to me…" she said, and let out a light laugh "And for the time being I think I can take ya out if I have too." She looked at him lying on the floor, he gave a crooked smile, the one Abbey had fallen for, the one his past girl friends had fallen for, the one some men fell for (not that anything happened between him and the men), that cocky grin that showed confidence, but as he looked up at the girl leaning over him he realized she was much stronger than his cocky grin.

"I'm Ayalynn, some people call me Lynn, I would much prefer they call me Ayalynn since that is my name but I get by…" she said and she reached down, he grabbed her hand and with a smoothness she lifted him to his feet, just so that they were standing toe to toe and looking each other in the eye, she stopped and the moment of silence that followed washed over Steven like a wave, her eyes were so bright, so full of life, and down to earth, like she had found the secret to the universe within herself, she gave of the vibe that she was comfortable with her body and wasn't afraid to let him know how strong she was, neither of them broke from the others gaze, almost as if they did a weight would come crashing back down onto their shoulders.

"How about I get dressed and then give you the tour?" she said, breaking the silence as she let go of his hand and walked over to the dresser, she pulled out some clothes, and motioned for him to turn around which he did immediately.

"That was a pretty nasty gun wound you had, stranger" she said, he could hear the rustle of clothes being pulled over her body covering her skin which he could only imagine was perfect "One might think you got into a pretty nasty battle with a pretty powerful person."

He could tell she had a mind for what was going on, a wounded man in the middle of the woods, seems kind of a mob-ish type of deal, something that a underground drug ring or mafia would do to a traitor.

"No, I am not in league with any powerful mafia bosses or a drug dealer if that's what you're implying, I was just…"

"You better not say you were _just shot_ because that bullet was three centimetres from being a critical injury." She cut him off, he wanted to tell her that wasn't what he was going to say but it was.

"What are you a doctor?" he laughed to himself, and then felt a soft thud of a pillow being slammed across his back, he turned to see Ayalynn in a pair of khaki cargo shorts and a thin, black, V-neck t-shirt, her hair fell in soft waves down her back, in her hand was the pillow he had previously been sleeping on.

"Veterinarian actually, basically the same principal" she smiled and slammed the pillow over his head, he shook his head and cocked and eye brow.

"Are you sure you should be doing that to a healing patient?" he kept his eye brow up as he looked her up and down, her eyes widened a little bit.

"You're kind of a fun killer aren't you?" she said, before putting the pillow down, he scooped it up quickly and swung in into her chest, she looked a little shocked at first but then they both started to laugh, he liked it, it felt like the first time he really laughed in a long time.

"what's your name, probably should have gotten that out of you earlier." She questioned while throwing the pillow back onto the bed after snatching it out of Stevens hands.

"Steven Hart" he blurted out before he had a chance to think of the dangers of telling this girl is real name, she turned on her heel to face him and he held that confident look but was in turmoil on the inside for possibly compromising his safety.

"Well Steven Hart, I need some help around here, and if you are willing I would like for you to be the one to help me, of course, you'd get your own room and free food for this job, since the house is supplied with food and money from the government, best part is no one will ever have to know you're here, unless you want them to." She smiled and grabbed his hand.

"What do you do here?" he liked the idea of no one knowing where he was, and he especially liked the free bit since he had no money, he also liked the idea of being alone with Ayalynn in the house.

"As I told you I'm a vet" she smiled as she dragged him to the balcony "What I left out, is that my specialty is kind of abnormal…"

She pushed him out of the glass door onto the patio, he was taken aback by what he saw, four extremely huge brontosaurus roamed about, eating the leaves off the trees and drinking from a small river that was the barrier between humongous reptiles and the house, he could also see other dinosaurs roaming in the woods, nothing he could see looked particularly dangerous but he hurried Ayalynn back inside quickly.

"Do you understand what those are?"

"Dinosaurs, yes I know."

"Then what are you doing, they may look harmless but some of those are very dangerous, herbivores or not…" he tried to explain the dangers of the beast to her but she simply didn't understand "Also their not all herbivores, you have to understand where there's prey there's predators"

He heard her snort and glared at her, she just looked at him and shook her head.

"You have no… do you know where you were wondering when you were shot?" he shook his head no and she snorted "You're in the Abbey Temple home of dinosaurs, we only take in herbivores and that's only if their anomalies have closed and can't be reopened."

"The Abbey Temple … wait what?" he was trying to piece together the puzzle but it seemed like some of the vital pieces were missing.

"Yeah after Abbey and Sir Conner where married they opened this place on a island they bought, in their spare time they come out here and take the menagerie with them…"

"Sir Conner?" Steven couldn't help but let out a chuckle, then he thought "I must've stumbled my way through an anomaly"

"Well then you're just as meant to be here as any of these creatures, since there's no doubt that you're anomaly has closed, I was looking for it when the signal went dead, that's when I found you." She said, he sensed a sort of awe in her voice.

"Ok, let me get this straight, I'm stuck in a future, where Conner is a knight, married to Abbey and they bought a private island to harbour fugitive dinos?"

"That's about right…"

"You're not screwing with me?"

"Nope." She said, she almost possessed a childlike quality to her, as she swung her head back and forth, then he realized if she was here looking after the dinosaurs than where were…

"Are Abbey and Conner… dead?" he gulped back the frog in his throat on the last word.

"Wha? No. Who said that?"

"Well I just thought if you're here looking after the dinosaurs."

"No… no, no, no, I said they come every time they have time off, I didn't say they were hear all the time, and the animals have to be taken care of while their away so I'm looking after them, plus I've grown up here my whole life so it's…" she paused and rubbed her hand on the glass of the patio door "It's my home."

He smiled, he was happy that Abbey and Conner weren't dead, given that this was the future they had to be considerably older, and seeing as he hadn't aged since he died they'd be in for quite a shock if they saw him again, he looked the girl over again, and something came over him, a sense of familiarity he wanted to call it, her black hair, her blue eyes, her gangly limbs, her strong body that was much less fragile than it looked, she reminded him of someone, he couldn't remember, it had been nagging at him for a few minutes while he watched her pulling on a pair of boots, her round face, and her lips, he couldn't stop looking at them, then he realized, she wasn't a resemblance to just one person.

"You're their daughter aren't you?"

"Yup, Ayalynn Claudia Temple." She smiled and made a motion for him to follow her.

"This is to weird."


	3. Chapter 3

It had been about a week since Steven had moved into the luxury home on the dinosaur island with Abbey and Conner's daughter, things were starting to click for him now that he realized he was in the future, at first he was amazed by the small little differences in technology, in weaponry, in the economy, he was amazed by the small girl who rushed in and out of the house every day in order to get supplies to check on the creatures living outside.

He had wondered why the house was still intact, there was a moat of a river surrounding the house outside but that wouldn't stop a heard of stampeding brontosaurus from getting to the place, Ayalynn had told him something about a barrier that acts as a sort of electric fence to scare the beasts away, not that it would hurt them, just give them a bit of a shock in order to stop them from trying to get through, it was something Conner had come up with to protect buildings in London from being attacked by the creatures from the outside.

He would sit at breakfast and chuckle to himself as Ayalynn babbled on about her life, sometimes she would tell happy stories about how her parents met, not that he didn't already know, but he liked hearing the romanticized version coming from her mouth, she had a pretty mouth.

He also learned that she had an older brother named Nickolas Steven Temple, his middle name was after his own and his first name was given to him after his old friend Nick Cutter who had been killed by Helen his wife, a beautiful tid-bit of information she forgot to mention to him once he had been brought back, Ayalynn told him stories about his past, she didn't seem to make the connection from the Steven Hart in her parents stories to the one sitting at her kitchen table in the mornings, until one day when she woke up and looked him dead in the eyes, he knew something was wrong just by the look on her face, one of fear and confusion.

"Ayalynn… what's wrong love?" he said looking her up and down, she was gripping her coffee mug and shaking slightly, he made a move to stand from the table but she took a step back.

"You're dead…" she whispered in a confused tone, she knew that he hadn't come from the time before he was killed because he had told her about when and where Helen had shot him, she recognised the building as one that had just been built close to the Forest of Dean, it was built by an order called the A.T.F., it stood for the Anomaly Task Force, it was literally built as a base to hold military men for being called when needed by the A.R.C, Steven had brushed this off until this moment when he wished he had never said a word.

"I was…"

"You're dead, and you're walking, and talking, and breathing, and you're a zombie… please don't eat my brains" he couldn't tell at this point if she was genuinely scared of if she was joking around, he stood up and she took another step back.

"I won't eat your brains." He said half-heartedly to the ridiculous girl, he shook his head and stared at her "If I was going to eat them don't you think I would've done it by now?"

"You could be an intricately planning zombie…" she said, he shook his head and chuckled at her, thinking of how much she was like her father, she put the mug down on the counter to her left "How?"

"Helen brought me back." He stated frankly without hesitation, he didn't want to scare her any more than he had to, and being part of the living dead was a bit terrifying for himself so he moved very slowly towards her and reached out his arms, almost as if coaxing a scared animal out of a corner.

He wasn't expecting her to look away from him with a sad grin and gross her arms over herself, he stopped moving and cocked his eyebrow, she gave an amused huff.

"I can't believe you sat there and listened to me tell you about your life, I must seem pretty stupid…" she turned on her heel and picked up the bag that she normally kept in the hall and flew out the door before he could catch her, he watched her run across the yard and jump into the small boat that crosses the river to the other side, he didn't see her rushing in and out of the house like she normally did that day, when she finally did get home it was around one thirty in the morning and Steven was not particularly impressed.

"Do you know what time it is?" he got a small grunt in response as she threw off her shoes and her jacket, she put her bag down and walked into the kitchen, he followed her intent on telling her his side of the story "Have you been avoiding me all day?"

"Don't be foolish, I was busy is all" he watched her back as she poured a glass of juice for herself and let her black hair out of the ponytail it had been pulled back in all day "I'm going to go to bed." She didn't exactly say it to him, it sounded more meant for herself than for someone else, she turned around and saw him towering over her.

"We need to talk." He said, before she had time to refuse he had thrown her over his shoulder and was carrying her upstairs, he didn't exactly know why he felt the need to do this, they were both reasonable adults, and where was he taking her exactly, this was her house, it would be pretty stupid to keep her captive somewhere where she lived.

He quickly flung the door open and walked to the metal door that was in every room, he put her down in the bathroom and rushed out the door, he stood behind it and held the door knob so that she couldn't get out.

"What the f-"

"Please just listen" he whispered, he heard a grumble from behind the door and began his story, he told her about how Helen had brought him back with technology that he didn't understand and didn't really care to understand, he had wanted to go see Nick, Abbey, and Conner, when Helen had explained to him that the world was different from what he had been a part of he felt lost and a little hopeless, memories of everything started to come back, all the pain and anger, all the fun and excitement, the rush of chasing dinosaurs with the team, and he needed to find them, one night he tried to sneak out and find his way to the A.R.C, they were a long way away from the actual building so he had stolen a car from Helen, when she found out she followed him and caught up to him around the Forest of Dean, he managed to get away from her after he had been shot, she probably thought that he would die from the gunshot wound, he must've walked through the anomaly without realizing and landed in the near future since she recognized the building "I had no intention of deceiving you or harming you in anyway"

"Helen is dead." He heard her say from behind the door which made his head snap up from the place he'd been resting his head "Danny Quinn killed her in the past, so either you're lying or…"

"But who would bring back Helen Cutter?" he said, he didn't mean it as it may have sounded, he did have an affair with the woman but in his defense that was before the woman had gone bat shit crazy.

"Many people are actually followers of Helen's beliefs" she said in a questioning tone, he heard her back thud against the door and her body slump to the floor "What if they didn't bring her back?"

"What do you mean?"

"Nobody's heard from Danny Quinn for years, decades even, if somebody went back to the past and prevented her from dying, she could have been brought back to our time"

"Wouldn't that change the course of history though?" he questioned her theory.

"People hop in and out of anomalies all the time." she said.

"That's going from here to there, but taking something from the past, that never existed in this future…"

"Would change everything and we wouldn't even know it." She said, he opened the bathroom door and watched her stand up and turn to face him

"Do you trust me?" he asked, she nodded her head yes and he held out his arms, she walked forward slowly and he wrapped his arms around her, he did know why he did this, it felt like a comforting gesture to have her in his arms, almost reassuring him that she was there, more like she was there and she trusted him "Whatever she's up to we have to stop it."

He felt her yawn before he heard the intake of breath, he heard her mumble something along the lines of 'Can't it wait till tomorrow' he chuckled, picked her up, and carried her to her room, he laid her down on the white sheets, before he pulled the blanket up over her he knew she was asleep, he closed the door carefully behind him on his way out.

Whatever Helen was up to couldn't wait, she wasn't to be trusted and most of the time her plans were fast paced, she didn't like to wait, he knew she could but he also knew she didn't like to sit there and twiddle her thumbs either, in the back of his mind was a repition of the words that Ayalynn had said.

_"Would change everything and we wouldn't even know it." _

"I won't let that happen."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 2.5**

"It's been a week and you haven't found him?" Helen said sitting in a beaten up swivel chair, the lamp light illuminated the mahogany desk and a small bit of her face, the man standing across the room, the ex- military officer shook his head to signal no, he had given up his job at the A.T.F just to be able to follow his belief in Helen Cutters work, as did many of the men and women who worked under her.

"I am sure he's dead Mrs. Cutter."

"That's Miss Cutter to you, and if he was dead do you not think we would have found the body by now?" she hissed and nibbled on the edge of her thumb, the man stood at full attention thinking over the previous statement in his head, they did not find a body, nor did they find any trace of him, so what other possibility was there "Don't be a idiot."

"Miss, what could've happened to him then?"

"Isn't it obvious?" she posed the question more to herself than to the man, biting down hard on the nail of her thumb which had been chewed down practically into a nub on the tip of her finger, she peered up at the man, watching his confused expression change into one of realization.

"You don't think he could have?"

She slammed her hand down on the desk quickly and heavily, she stood from her chair and raced around the desk to grab the man who must've been twice her size by the collar, he raised an eyebrow at her in wonder, trying to think if she really had the strength in her to bring him down, but also realizing that wasn't the point of the gesture.

She let one seemingly simple command slip through her lips.

"Becker. Find me Steven Hart."


End file.
